23 April, 2002
Lone Wolf and Cub, Vol. 1: The Assassin's Road
Kazuo Koike (Writer)
Goseki Kojima (Artist)
Trans. Dana Lewis
1995
303 pp
After suffering through Triplanetary, I needed to flush my brain clean by reading something which didn't suck, and something I could read quickly. Comics were called for.
This series was originally published in Japan in the 1970s; I don't know why the copyright date is given as 1995. It's about a wandering ronin (samurai-for-hire), Ogami Itto, who travels around medieval Japan with his young son. While ronin are not well-respected, Ogami is something of an exception, since he's pretty much a total bad-ass.
This volume includes nine issues of the original comic, which is a pretty good deal, as far as comic collections go. The stories are, in some ways, fairly repetative-- Ogami is hired to kill somebody, he does it and moves on. He's very good at what he does, however, and none of his jobs are easy: they all require a fair amount of planning and subterfuge in order to gain access to his targets, and escape afterwards.
As one might expect from the subject matter, this comic is extremely violent. I'm not talking about the cartoony violence of, say, Dragon Ball Z; these are bloody stories about a killer living in a violent culture. However, the violence isn't the sort of gratuitous, self-indulgent violence which turned me off of Garth Ennis' Preacher. It all serves the story.
I really like the art in this comic. It's drawn in a realistic style (unlike the stylized "big eyes" look of a lot of modern manga and anime, which I also like), with touches reminiscent of traditional Japanese art. Kojima has a very nice way of combining sharp lines with smoother, water-color-ish inking, in order to convey specific moods and feelings. (I tried to find a nice sample on the publisher's web site, but came up dry.)
The last two episodes in this volume were particularly intriguing. Number 8, "Wings to the Bird, Fangs to the Beast," puts Ogami in a situation which calls for more emotional involvement than any of the other missions, and one gains some insight into his more human side. The final episode, "The Assassin's Road," gives part of Ogami's back-story, showing how he came to be a masterless samurai, on the road with his baby son. I'll keep my eyes peeled for the next installment.